Applicants were heavily concentrated in North America (911), Europe (675) and the Asia-Pacific region (303). U.S. companies account for more than half of the gTLD applications with 883.

ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz said that the applications will now be subject to a public comment and objection period, and a rigorous, objective and independent evaluation system.

"A 60-day comment period begins today, allowing anyone in the world to submit comments on any application, and the evaluation panels will consider them," said Pritz. "If anyone objects to an application and believes they have the grounds to do so, they can file a formal objection to the application. And they will have seven months to do that."